Olaf Roth was born in Nuremberg and studied Romance languages and German language and literature in Erlangen, Duesseldorf, and Rome. After completing his dissertation on Gabriele d’Annunzio’s opera libretti, he worked as a freelance literary translator from Italian, French, and English. From 2005 to 2010, he was press officer at Staatstheater Nürnberg. After holding similar positions in German theaters in Hamburg, Kiel, and Dortmund, he was head of communications at the Staatsoper Hannover for four years. In 2018, he moved to the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, as chief dramaturg for opera, ballet and puppetry. From 2021 to 2023, he was dramaturg for the drama department at the Meininger Staatstheater in Thuringia, Germany. Since the 2023/24 season, he has been working as a dramaturg at the Bavarian State Opera, and since 2024/25 as chief dramaturg. He has also appeared as a lecturer at several German universities and colleges and as a non-fiction author. He currently teaches at the Bavarian Theater Academy August Everding.